From the Desk of Chip Kemp - Vol. 4

Don’t disrespect the simple. 

701x tools like the xTpro tag and the Autonomous Rancher herd management system get lots of accolades. And appropriately so.  

However, I think too many of us overlook the elegantly simple and powerful xTlite tag. It is an inexpensive, easy to install, robust Bluetooth device that allows you and the kids to hop on the UTV and drive in the pasture and locate any animal wearing an xTlite that is within Bluetooth range. It’ll help you track down that missing calf and save you hours of stress. For the first time you may actually know your calf inventory with a digital roll call. It’ll interface with an xWatsen water monitor to give you peace of mind about that small group of heifers you keep over in the next county. Or even more, it’ll interact with any xTpro tags that are in pasture to get a relative GPS position on the animal wearing the xTlite tag. Oh, health alerts and an EID are baked into the cake as well.

For our friends in the Midwest and in the Southeast this little tool might just be the game changer you are looking for. Find one missing calf with the in-app Amber Alert and you’ve easily justified a bunch of these $20 tags. Simple is good. 

USAHA/NIAA New World Screwworm Conference 

I was fortunate to be on hand at this conference in late September in Kansas City, MO. This intimate meeting consisted of most of the country’s state vets, many USDA, APHIS, and CDC personnel. As you’d imagine, many beef industry groups were on hand. There was much discussion around the threats and potential solutions available to those tasked with protecting our industry. Clearly, there are no easy answers. This will be a multipronged approach. But it was healthy to see candid and difficult topics being covered without folks shirking their duties or casting blame. 701x stands ready to deploy our tools to assist the individual beef producer in monitoring and protecting the health of their own herd, their own livelihood, and their own responsibility.